


Son of his Father

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: The Holmes Estate [7]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America Friendly, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Friendly, Steve has been forgotten over time, Team Tony, and he's not taking it well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-01 19:59:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13302126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: Steve has woken up in the 21st CenturyAnd he doesn't like it.





	1. Steve Rogers

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a consequence of the first story in this series, Bucky was found early on - before the brainwashing could really set in.

Steve Rogers did not like the 21st Century.

The only nice thing was that he woke up to Bucky sitting by his bedside. Bucky’s explanation for still being alive had been brisk. _‘I landed in a particularly deep river, then I was captured by HYDRA. Howard and his family found out after the war and pulled me out of there.’_

It annoyed Steve a little. Don’t get him wrong, he was grateful to Howard. But Howard was an engineer. He was meant for building weapons, not going on rescue missions himself. Steve should have been the one to save Bucky. He should have dived after him back when it happened, and then maybe all those bad things wouldn’t have happened.

The worst thing about this century, though, was the lack of respect.

Nobody knew who Captain America was. It was disgraceful! Children shrugged it off as something their grandparents knew about, but they didn’t really care. Adults had considered him – and he knew because one man said it to his face – a living advertisement from a bygone era. As if that was all Steve had been! Just a piece of living propaganda? Just the dancing monkey? Had they no respect for his sacrifice?

Bucky hadn’t seemed concerned. ‘There was a radio show for some time after you crashed, but it kind of...faded off. Most shows do. Then the Korean Conflict came along. Howard didn’t see the point of reviving it.’

‘Howard?’ Steve had been confused. What did Howard have to do with it?

‘The army and US government invented the legend of Captain America around you, Stevie,’ Bucky said. ‘After the war, they sold the rights to it to Howard so they didn’t have to worry about maintaining your image. When the Korean Conflict broke out in 1950, not a lot of people considered it a war so Howard figured the point of using the Captain America image and message was moot in point. Then during the Vietnam War, 20 years later, there was a lot of anti-war sentiment so Howard put it through his PR guys. They came to the conclusion that reviving the story of Captain America wouldn’t encourage anyone to enlist – in fact it’d do the exact opposite.’

Steve was appalled. ‘What? Did we get a generation of cowards?’

‘No, Steve.’ Bucky later showed him the infamous Napalm photo. ‘You asked why people didn’t want to enlist for the Vietnam War. It’s because they saw images like this.’

Steve took the photograph and looked at it. It was startling to look at, certainly, a group of children – one little girl without a stitch of clothing on her – running from some kind of dust cloud with openly horrified looks on their faces. In the background, soldiers calmly walked behind them.

‘But, Buck, this is obviously staged!’ Steve insisted. ‘I mean, why would they show a bunch of kids running towards a camera like this?’

Bucky had rolled his eyes. ‘Turn on a TV, Steve.’ Then he’d stormed out.

Steve had decided to start showing people who Captain America was. As he was living in Brooklyn, he was limited to New York – for now. As there were no Nazis to fight, Steve went after criminals. He saved a lot of people. It confused him, however, why all people talked about was the people he couldn’t save.

‘What are you doing?’ Bucky had demanded the first time he’d done it. ‘There are people who are trained for that kind of stuff, Steve! You can’t just go charging in!’

‘I can’t sit here, Buck. I have to go out and save people. The people have to know that Captain America is here to protect them.’

‘You dropped the side of a building on 17 people!’

‘No, the criminals used a bomb and did that. I can’t save everyone, but more people would have died if I hadn’t been there.’

Bucky had given him the strangest look, and left.

After a few more missions, Bucky came to him. Apparently, he’d come around. ‘I’ve been asked to give to an invitation to Avengers Tower.’

‘What Tower?’ Steve asked.

‘Avengers Tower. It’s the building that the Avengers work out of.’

‘What are the Avengers?’

‘Have you turned on a TV at all?’ Bucky asked. ‘The Avengers are an International Response Team for threats of superhuman or higher levels. They’re headed, funded, and outfitted by Tony Stark.’

Well, about time! ‘ _Tony_ Stark?’

Bucky sighed in exasperation. ‘Anthony Stark – Howard Stark’s son. Everyone calls him Tony.’

So Steve went to the Tower, absolutely convinced he’d see the awe he’d been expecting since he woke up in the 21st century. Instead, people barely seemed to notice him as they worked. Bucky led him into the lift. There were no buttons and the lift started moving automatically. Steve nearly jumped out of his skin when a British-accented voice came from above.

‘Good morning, Sergeant Barnes.’

‘Morning, JARVIS. Is Tony running late?’

‘No. He organised his schedule with Miss Potts so that he would have no interruptions to this meeting.’

‘Thank you,’ Bucky said.

‘Who’s that?’ Steve whispered.

‘JARVIS,’ Bucky said. ‘He’s basically a computerised program that runs the place.’

‘So it’s a machine?’ Steve asked. ‘With a human voice?’ The future just got weirder.

Bucky chuckled. ‘Don’t let Tony hear you call one of his creations “it”. He’s an engineer, and they have their quirks. One of those is thinking of their creations as the same as _people_.’

‘But machines aren’t people!’ Steve insisted.

‘They are to the engineers who create them.’ The lift stopped, the doors opened, and Bucky stepped out.

Steve quickly followed. They walked down some fancy hallway, with people on those computer things (so what happened to actual computers?) and then into an office with clear glass walls. Steve didn’t understand the point of it. The man inside was probably somewhere in his 40s. He looked a lot like Howard, but mostly in the face. He was roughly about the same height and dressed much the same way Howard had, but his hair was a lighter shade and this man wore his facial hair in an odd style.

Bucky knocked on the door and walked in. ‘Tony.’

‘Hiya, Sarge.’ Tony Stark sat down. ‘I suppose this Ken Doll is Rogers.’

That was the moment Steve decided he didn’t like Tony. As they talked, Steve couldn’t find a single redeeming factor in Tony, and he didn’t understand why Bucky liked him. Tony was cocky, he rubbed his privilege in everyone’s faces, and he acted like he was the only authority in the room. Then he had the gall to suggest Steve needed his head read.  
‘I don’t need to see any kind of head shrink,’ Steve snapped, levelling Tony was a disapproving look.

Tony simply raised an eyebrow. ‘I said you need to pass a series of tests _including_ a psychological evaluation before you can join the Avengers. That is a standard procedure. You do understand what a psychological evaluation is, don’t you?’

Steve scowled. Of course he did! ‘Psychiatrists determine sanity or insanity.’

Tony gave him a long look. ‘Since you were unfrozen, have you interacted in the outside world at all?’ He didn’t give him a chance to answer. ‘A psychological evaluation is a series of tests designed to assess behaviour, personality, and cognitive ability.’

Bucky spoke up from behind him. ‘In this instance, it is used to determine suitability for field work and where an Avenger would be best suited on the field.’

Steve supposed that was okay.

Until after the evaluation. The quack they got in had submitted a report that listed Steve as “untrained”, “displays clear signs of narcissism”, “self-centred”, and “lacks any capacity for empathy”. They also used some phrase about dummings-kruger, and recommended that Steve remain _off_ the field “until these issues are resolved”.

Steve was highly offended. ‘I’m Captain America! I saved the world from the Red Skull.’

‘No,’ Tony said, flicking through some form of transparent screen. ‘According to the report, the Red Skull vanished after fooling around with an artefact of unknown origin and is currently listed as “Missing: Assumed Dead”. You crashed a plane, set to destroy New York, into the Arctic. That would be a bigger deal now, than it was back then.’

Steve seethed. He went to retort but Tony cut him off. It was clear Howard had spoiled him.

‘You can either submit to the training and education program set out before you, or return to Brooklyn, drop the Captain America shtick, and get a job like everyone else. Be advised, if you do return to Brooklyn, it will be illegal for you to run around as Captain America.’

 _I’ll show them!_ Steve had seen those Avengers. They thought just because they had powers or they cheated with flashy gadgets they could just call themselves heroes. They were nothing but a bunch of fakes! They used the suffering of poor, innocent people to make themselves look good. They consistently spat on Peggy’s good name. What had she ever done to deserve such unfair scorn? Steve would show them what a real hero looked like!

The next superhuman menace that surfaced, Steve charged at. He destroyed the threat and went home in grim satisfaction. He was surprised when, hours later, Bucky marched in. There was a dark look on his face. ‘You’ve really done it now.’ Bucky suddenly, unexpectedly, hauled Steve up by his collar and marched him out of the apartment building.

‘Bucky, what’s going on?’ Steve demanded, afraid something had happened to his friend. 

‘Tony warned you,’ Bucky snapped.

Was Tony blackmailing him? Before Steve could ask, they were out of the building and the blonde woman from before was there – Captain Marvel, they called her. Steve doubted she was really a Captain. But she hauled him just as easily as Bucky did. Steve’s brain struggled to keep up with what was going on.

Why was this happening? What was wrong with Bucky? What had Tony done to make him do this?

This time when they arrived at the Tower, Steve was taken to a very different room. This one was barren and had several empty cells. Bucky held one of his arms, Marvel held the other. Tony walked into the room from the other end. Unlike last time, he wasn’t dressed in a 3-piece suit. He was wearing jeans and some shirt with a slogan on it. A blue glow was present on his chest from something or other.

Probably some gizmo.

‘So what kind of explanation can you come up with,’ Tony pondered aloud, ‘for that jackass behaviour? You just got 22 counts of negligent manslaughter to your name.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, and in case you don’t understand the legal term, you just killed 22 people.’

‘I didn’t—’ Steve began to insist.

Suddenly, a screen appeared next to Tony. The footage wasn’t great, but it showed his fight with the bad guy earlier that day. A lot of people had stopped and stared, but they’d soon run. As he watched, he mused how much more quickly he could have ended that fight if he had his shield. Bucky said it had been melted down and no longer existed.

‘You threw a car, you threw a superhuman around and your missed punches hit buildings, which damaged them and the debris hit innocent civilians,’ Tony said. ‘Care to explain?’

Steve gave him a disapproving glare. ‘More people would have died if I hadn’t been there.’

Tony inclined his head, face completely expressionless. ‘So you don’t regret what you did at all. And what would you say to the families of those you have killed today.’

Anger rolled in Steve’s gut. Tony was just trying to make him look back. ‘I know what I’m doing! A real hero knows that he can’t save everyone! You may think you are a hero, but you’re not. You’re just a spoiled rich boy trying to bully me into submission. I don’t back down to bullies.’

‘Stupid punk,’ Bucky suddenly muttered.

‘Huh?’ Steve looked at him.

‘Little home truth for you, Stevie,’ Bucky said. ‘You never understood the meaning of the word. You just used the “bully” excuse to justify getting into fights. Hell! You thought the Nazis were bullies!’

‘The Nazis?’ Tony demanded, drawing Steve’s attention back to him. ‘Oh, my God!’ He glared at Steve, and the look was unsettling – like he was judging Steve and finding _him_ wanting. ‘6 million people.’

‘What?’ Steve demanded.

‘A bully is someone who tries to feel better about themselves by tearing down either someone they envy or a person that is physically weaker than them,’ Tony said. ‘The Nazis systematically murdered 6 million people for their religion, their skin colour, or simply their sexual orientation.’

The last one confused Steve.

‘If they were found to be part of a minority of any sort, they went to the death camps.’ Tony’s eyes narrowed. ‘When you call the Nazis bullies, you disrespect every single one of those 6 million people. You disrespect every man, woman, and child who lost their life because the Nazis decided they had no right to live.’

Steve glared right back, ignoring that for the lie it was. How could you possibly kill 6 million people. ‘Your father was a better man than you, Tony.’

That made him grin. ‘Guess dad was right about you,’ he said. ‘You do think you’re above reprimand.’

‘What?’ Steve flinched back, as much as he could given the circumstances. ‘Howard never said that!’

‘Not to you,’ Tony said. ‘When you knew him, dad didn’t know too much about you. After the war, however, he found out a bit more and he lost all admiration for you. See, that’s why dad let your name fade out. He didn’t think you were a very good role model for children. Hell, when he found out how your mom died, I heard he used some very colourful language.’

‘He did.’ Bucky sounded amused. Steve glanced at him. He didn’t understand it. What was wrong with him?

‘Hm.’ Tony drew his attention back as the billionaire paced in front of him. ‘Your mother was a nurse, wasn’t she, Rogers?’

‘Yes. What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘And she died of tuberculosis.’ Tony stopped and looked at him again. ‘These days, babies are inoculated against the disease within their first year of life. Back then, the vaccines didn’t exist. You lived with your mother while she was dying of the disease, and yet you didn’t contract it. You knew you were a carrier; you knew you were contaminated. Yet you still tried to join the army. When dad found out, he cursed you to hell and back.’

‘I don’t believe you!’ Steve snapped. ‘Your father was a patriot.’

Tony chuckled. ‘Funny.’

‘What is?’

‘Do you know how Stark Industries started out?’

Steve stared at him, but said nothing.

‘Dad received a summons to the draft board in late 1941,’ Tony said. ‘He didn’t want to go to war though. So he took a box of bits and pieces and showed the men there that he was better suited to building weapons than to using them. The army paid him to create bombs and guns and missiles.’ Tony fixed Steve with a level look. ‘Dad built weapons to dodge the draft.’

Steve’s jaw fell open. ‘...That’s not true!’

‘No one’s above the law.’ Tony jerked his thumb.

Steve suddenly felt himself propelled into one of the cells. The door was slammed shut behind him. Marvel walked over to Tony while Bucky secured the door. Steve rushed over to the bars. ‘Bucky, why are you doing this?’

‘You’ve always had problems, Steve,’ Bucky said. ‘You always had to get into fights and you always ignored the consequences of your actions. It’s probably our fault. We enabled you far too much.’ He shook his head.

‘Bucky, no!’ Steve insisted. He lowered his voice so Tony and Marvel wouldn’t hear. ‘Listen, I know Tony must be blackmailing you with something...’ He trailed off as he saw the look on Bucky’s face.

‘Steven Grant Rogers, I have known Tony since the day he was born,’ he stated. ‘You may have been a lonely kid, but you brought a lot of that on yourself. Tony was even lonelier, and he didn’t go around picking fights. Sure, he had his mom and dad, the butler and his wife, and me around, but he had no friends his own age. Tony has dealt with classism his entire life. You seem to be under the impression that Howard indulged Tony, but he never did. Howard made sure Tony reaped the consequence of his bad decisions.’

Bucky turned and walked away.

‘Maybe doing the same to you will knock some sense into that thick skill of yours.’

Steve didn’t understand, and he didn’t like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The part where Bucky has said he's known Tony since the day he was born (I decided when I wrote the first chapter of Tiny!Tony) is an exaggeration.
> 
> In truth, Kurmas_Kat noticed the inconsistency that came from writing Tiny!Tony before I did.


	2. Bucky Barnes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky was rescued in 1948.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone wanted to see Bucky's perspective, so here it is.

Bucky Barnes had once admired Howard Stark.

Howard Stark had been the man every red-blooded American boy had wanted to be. He was rich, attractive, charismatic, and he had become successful despite starting in an extremely poverty-stricken neighbourhood. If he could do it, it felt like anyone could. It wasn’t until later that Bucky found out _how_. If he’d have thought of it, he’d have tried.

Of course, he wouldn’t have been as successful as Howard.

When Bucky was saved from that hell-hole, the last thing he was expecting was for it to be done by Howard Stark and his quick-thinking, quick-moving British relatives. Bucky’s head had been cloudy and painful. He’d then been hauled out and to England, where the family’s doctor had looked at him. The first thing he’d done was remove the metal arm had replaced Bucky’s right arm with.

‘It’s too heavy,’ he’d said. ‘I don’t care how strong you are. This thing will be putting a strain on your right side.’

Howard had built him a new arm, designed to weigh much less. Then he took him back to America. Howard gave him some downtime to recover from what had happened to him. In all that time, he didn’t tell anyone that Bucky was back. Bucky knew that because of the Howlies’ reactions when they saw him.

For the next 20 years or so, Bucky was back with the Howling Commandos. He learned something very important. While Peg was beautiful and she did a great job at talking the part of the charismatic and moralistic leader, her actions led much to be desired. It was like Stevie all over again. She was more of an “ends justifies the means” kind of girl. If she thought something would get the results she wanted, she did it.

And she was intolerant too.

The story that really ticked Bucky off was the thing about Stevie’s blood. He agreed with Howard, really. Steve had been cured of just about every ailment under the sun. His blood could have been used to cure hundreds of people. But Peg had found out and decided she had the right to it. (When Bucky found out how she’d gotten her hands on the blood, he’d had a few stern words to Edwin Jarvis.) Peg had then tipped the blood out into the river.

In the hopes that Howard could do something with his blood, ‘seeing as a similar thing was used on me,’ Bucky offered for Howard to take a pint of his own blood. Within ten years, Howard had worked out how to cure a plethora of diseases, from the terminal to the merely uncomfortable.

The golden goose, however, came when the Americans got involved in the Korean “conflict”. (Baloney. It was a war.) Bucky had been there when Peg demanded to know why Howard hadn’t revived Steve’s image for this one. Howard, completely unconcerned, had picked up his coffee and taken a sip as he leaned back in his big, executive chair. (Peg had dragged them into the SI office building for this confrontation. What she was hoping to achieve, Bucky didn’t know.)

‘The vast majority of Americans don’t consider Korea to be a war,’ Howard said calmly. ‘You think we should whip the Cap out every time there’s an armed conflict. Besides, people aren’t interested in it. They don’t want to hear it, and they don’t want their kids exposed to a figure like Cap.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Peg demanded. ‘Steve is an excellent role model for children.’

‘He’s really not,’ Howard said.

‘Why not?’ Dum Dum asked before Peg could recover from her outraged shock at him saying that.

‘Two good reasons,’ Howard said. ‘One: kids imitate their role models. Do you really want little kids, who don’t understand the concept of mortality, trying to imitate Steve’s feat’s of enhanced strength?’ He didn’t give her a chance to answer – and she looked like she didn’t know what to say. ‘The second reason is the main reason kids are given role models. Role models are people for kids to aspire to be like. Captain America is a propaganda icon from World War Two and he is presented as the perfect soldier. He is strong, a tactical genius, and he never makes mistakes. And that last point there would be _poison_ in a little kid’s mind.’

‘He’s right,’ Bucky said, derailing whatever Peg was about to say. ‘If Steve was a role model, with the image he has, kids would become scared to make mistakes. They’d think making mistakes, even innocent ones, was wrong and they shouldn’t do it. Steve made plenty of mistakes – he had plenty of flaws – but they don’t show those.’

‘Example?’ Peg demanded.

‘He was extremely self-centred. Remember how he tried to enlist five times before Erskine found him?’

‘That just showed his determination to serve,’ Peg stated firmly.

Bucky frowned. ‘Are you aware that his mother died of tuberculosis when he was 18?’

There was a moment of silence, and then Howard let loose a string of expletives.

Shortly after that failed attempt at trying to revive Captain America, the SSR dissolved. Bucky hadn’t been surprised. It was created to combat the Nazis. The Nazis were gone, so they were no longer relevant. Peg was shipped back to England to work for MI5, and most of the other agents were absorbed by either the CIA or the FBI. The Commandoes split off soon after that. Bucky found himself back at New York and working for Howard, who’d offered him a job.

Bucky found himself fast friends with Howard as they were a lot more similar than he’d thought.

In the mid-50s, Bucky watched Howard lose interest in his womaniser lifestyle in favour of a young lady he’d met: Maria Collins Carbonell. She wasn’t stunning, but she was quite pretty and extremely elegant. She was also extremely business-savvy, which was good for Howard. She could link to the human element of his business, which he’d always struggled with. In 1957, he married her.

In 1970, after several failed attempts, Howard and Maria had their first and only child. Anthony Edward Stark had been born on May 29. Throughout the whole pregnancy, Howard had insisted he’d be a boy. Jarvis had told Bucky, when he visited on leave, that he'd never seen Howard look so nervous as he did when he held that small child wrapped in a soft blue blanket. It was a feeling Bucky soon became familiar with, when he held the boy for the first time..

Howard even made a decision while Bucky was there. ‘I don’t like the blue,’ he said one day. ‘We need red and gold.’

Bucky’s mind was taken back as he watched Tony grow. He remembered Steve, back before the war. Steve had been cute in the same way a Chihuahua was. Tony was cute in a far more endearing way. He was his father’s son – always his father’s son. Whenever he was around Howard, he would trot after him, mimicking anything he did. He would stand like Howard, make the same gestures as Howard, copy any schematics that Howard made.

At 4 years old, Tony built his first circuit board.

One time, while Howard was trying to work out taping an advertisement for the Stark Expo, Tony wandered in and started looking at the model. Howard had them cut filming so he could go over and explain to Tony, ‘You can look at it later, but right now daddy’s using it. Daddy needs to get this exactly right and if we mess up we have to start all over again. You understand, Tony?’

‘Uh huh.’ Tony nodded. ‘Promise I can look at it later?’

‘I promise,’ Howard said. ‘But that’s later. Right now, daddy needs some space. Why don’t you go find mommy and see what she’s doing. Maybe she’s cooking you a pie.’

Tony perked up. ‘Pie?’ He trotted from his father’s side and went to hunt down his mother. ‘Mommy! Do I get pie?’

Bucky loved moments like that, because Tony was so very precocious. He built his first engine by the time he was 8, and graduated high school by 14. As a consequence of his extreme intelligence, which Howard estimated to be greater than his own, the only friends his own age he had were his cousins in England and they only saw each other a few times a year.

By 17, Tony had three PhDs. When he was 21, Howard retired and gave Tony control of the company. Bucky was amused at how similar the two were. Like his father before him, Tony enjoyed the finer things in life: parties, the occasional booze-fest, and, most importantly, women. Bucky wondered if Tony would grow out of it like Howard did. He also inherited his father’s workaholic engineer tendencies as well and would rather spend days in his workshop than an hour in a meeting.

In the mid-90s, though, something bizarre happened. A sort of squad started to form around Tony. It started out with James Rhodes, an airman who had attended MIT with Tony and his first real friend from outside both the immediate and extended family (which included Bucky and the Jarvises). Then they met Happy Hogan, a down-on-his-luck boxer who saved Tony from an assassination attempt when Bucky hadn’t been there. Tony had expressed his gratitude by offering Happy a job at SI on security and soon they became friends too.

In the middle of this, an incident occurred in the Middle East, which Rhodey requested help for. One of his fellow airmen, Captain Carol Danvers, had encountered some bizarre technology and somehow gained superpowers. One of those was super-human strength. Bucky was sent in to help her manage these powers. Over the years, several others surfaced like her – such as Bruce Banner – and not all of them were law-abiding citizens.

In 1998, Tony met Pepper Potts – the final member of the squad. Bucky was deeply amused. She was the first PA Tony had that would not go to bed with him. For that, Tony respected her. He even came to value her opinion over even his own at times. Tony sometimes looked at Pepper the same way his father had looked at his mother. Bucky didn’t push it though. If it was going to happen, it would happen in its own time.

When Afghanistan happened...well, Bucky wasn’t sure anything could have stopped that from happening. While in captivity, Tony had developed his own superhero identity: Iron Man.

While he was in captivity, every enhanced person who the Starks had helped or employed when no one else would had gathered to stage a rescue mission. The main problem was that they didn’t know where he was. That was until Tony was found by Rhodey, stumbling through the desert.

The answer to why he was attacked, and how they knew where to find him, turned out to be a single name: Obadiah Stane.

Back in 1952, Stane had sent a job application into Stark Industries. He had looked fully qualified for the position, but Howard must’ve had a sixth sense or something. He had taken one look at the name and tossed the application in the bin. It turned out that Obadiah Stane was a war monger, money hungry and power hungry. He’d wanted to get his grubby mitts on the Stark fortune and influence – and he was affiliated with HYDRA. They’d been spying on Tony for years, waiting for the moment to strike.

Apparently, it was far harder than it used to be.

That was why it only happened when Tony was in his mid-30s.

But Iron Man was born and Tony was a businessman. He guessed, with a grim expression, that eventually the government would want superheroes to be under some kind of registration and licensing laws. So, he’d gone and spoke to his lawyers about it, and they’d agreed with him. As he explained to the rest of them, Legal had offered a set of loopholes so that they could set a precedent.

If they wrote up their own set of rules, checks and balances, and set up their own task-force, not affiliated with SI, Legal could work with it. So that’s what they did. For what felt like forever, they pored over what they should be allowed to do, what they shouldn’t be allowed to do, what needed to be done when things went wrong. They drew from some scientific protocol and a lot of military regulations.

In the meantime, Tony built a similar suit to his Iron Man one for Rhodey.

The finished product was presented to the UN with Tony, Rhodey, and Carol representing the assembled team. They called it The Superhuman Accords. They chose the UN because that would keep it impartial to any particular country. Bucky had to say, compared to what could have happened, the results were incredibly favourable. The public had liked the idea of putting the enhanced community under a rule structure. The UN had debated and helped them refine the Accords and then their team was officially legalised.  
The public and the press started calling them the Avengers.

...Then, they found Steve.

It was an accident. An excavation team that was testing the ice of the Arctic had found the plane. Steve was inside, frozen but very much alive. Howard’s entire family had presumed it would be so after how they’d found Bucky. Because Bucky was the only one around who knew him, it was decided that he would look after the punk – _again_. Tony bought them a couple of apartments in Brooklyn.

Steve’s confusion when he woke up to see Bucky there was hilarious. Mind you, it’d been the first time he’d been called “Bucky” in years. After what happened in that bunker, under HYDRA’s hands, he hadn’t felt like Bucky anymore. Everyone else has respected that. He was now James, Jim, Barnes, or Sarge.

Bucky gave him a short, clipped explanation. _‘I landed in a particularly deep river, then I was captured by HYDRA. Howard and his family found out after the war and pulled me out of there.’_

Howard had died of old age just a few years ago. The entire family had come over for his final days, and his funeral. The family was actually much larger than Bucky had been expecting. He knew of them, of course, but there were enough of them to fill up a small auditorium. It was slightly unnerving having this many geniuses in one room.

But he did find out that Peg had developed Alzheimer’s.

Steve never asked about that though. In fact, his questions on the matter ended at, ‘Where’s Peg?’

One thing that really hurt Steve was the fact that people forgot him. Bucky had tried to explain why – he was a figure from a bygone era. Most people had never been to war, and they didn’t _want_ to go. The Napalm photo was one of the most harrowing things Bucky had ever seen but Steve was convinced it was fake. Steve was convinced people who didn’t want to go to war were cowards. Not that they objected to war, but that they were cowards.

Of course, he’d always thought that.

Then Steve decided to take matters into his own hands. He went charging into a hostage situation. 23 people were dead as a result. 12 were injured. The bank where the situation had been taking place was completely wrecked. Everyone was looking for someone to blame because they didn’t know who this clown was. Tony was suddenly under a lot of heat. He had promised the media a press conference to give the public an explanation. He asked Bucky to get it.

‘What are you doing?’ Bucky demanded of Steve. ‘There are people who are trained for that kind of stuff, Steve! You can’t just go charging in!’

‘I can’t sit here, Buck. I have to go out and save people. The people have to know that Captain America is here to protect them.’

‘You dropped the side of a building on 17 people!’ Bucky remembered his horror at watching the footage of Steve knocking a homemade explosive aside and deflecting it right into the wall of the bank. It had exploded and the whole side of the building had dropped. It’d landed directly on top of exactly 17 men, women, and children.

‘No, the criminals used a bomb and did that,’ Steve said in a patronising tone. ‘I can’t save everyone, but more people would have died if I hadn’t been there.’

He was trying to recapture his glory days. He wanted to be the big hero again. That was the only explanation. Steve was stuck in the past and he refused to move on. He refused to admit he was in another time, where his brand of “hero” was no longer required. There was no war to fight, and his actions were now illegal.

The news of Captain America’s discovery had been met with mild interest. People knew the name but he wasn’t important. Tony ended up having to tell the press that Captain America was trying to reclaim his glory. As there was no war to fight, he had moved to taking the law into his own hands. He was not affiliated with the Avengers, but the discussions were already underway to try and pull the situation under control.

Steve wasn’t making it easy, charging off without a word to “save people”.

‘It’s not looking good,’ Tony said. ‘The UN are dubious about signing Rogers up to the Accords but, at the same time, he’s a loose cannon that they want controlled. A lot of people are calling for him to be arrested as an illegal vigilante.’ Not that he wasn’t one. Tony turned. ‘Sarge, I know he’s your friend but if this keeps up we’ll have to detain him here. The Supreme Court have actually called and asked if I want to issue a warrant for his arrest.’

‘We’re not cops,’ Rhodey pointed out.

‘That’s what I said,’ Tony mused. ‘They feel that with his enhancements, that only Avengers could arrest him without suffering serious damage or death. They find an exception acceptable in the circumstances.’ He sat down and slumped in his chair. ‘I told them I’d like to try something but if there’s one more incident I’ll take them up on it.’

‘Try what?’ Bruce asked.

‘Haul him in under the Avengers chain-of-command.’

Carol nodded. ‘Good idea. If we can get him in, we can at least evaluate him. If he’s in the Avengers, we can enforce to him how the world works nowadays.’

Bucky nodded. ‘It’s worth a try, I guess.’ So he got up and went back to Brooklyn to talk to Steve before he did anything else stupid. ‘I’ve been asked to give you an invitation to Avengers Tower.’

Dumb punk had never heard of it. Hell, he’d never heard of Tony! But off they went, Steve walking with such a spring in his step. He obviously thought things were going his way; that this was a recognition of his “greatness”. Bucky could throttle Erskine. He really could. Putting this “good becomes great” idea in Stevie’s head.

Bucky was satisfied to see the spring slowly fade away as Steve noticed that no one was staring at him in awe. The Avengers support staff just went about their business and did their jobs. They didn’t exist to cater to anyone’s ego, and Bucky was glad for that. They had been picked from Tony’s most trusted, professional, and competent employees.

Watching Steve jump out of his skin and then his confusion over JARVIS was hilarious though.

Bucky led Steve to Tony’s office. He was supposed to stay in with them while Tony dealt with the punk. It wasn’t unreasonable for Tony to fear for his own safety in the office. Steve was the kind of person who dealt with conflicts by violence. And he had no appreciation for how much stronger he was now.

Tony explained to Steve what would happen. Bucky was a little surprised himself when they started on the topic of the psych eval and Steve got the mulish look on his face. He’d been here long enough. Hadn’t he noticed how much _everything_ had changed – even the definition of a mental illness and the attitudes towards such?

‘I don’t need any kind of head shrink,’ Steve said condescendingly.

Tony simply raised an eyebrow. ‘I said you need to pass a series of tests _including_ a psychological evaluation before you can join the Avengers. That is a standard procedure. You do understand what a psychological evaluation is, don’t you?’

Steve scowled. ‘Psychiatrists determine sanity or insanity.’

Tony gave him a long look. ‘Since you were unfrozen, have you interacted in the outside world at all?’ He didn’t give him a chance to answer. ‘A psychological evaluation is a series of tests designed to assess behaviour, personality, and cognitive ability.’

Bucky spoke up from behind him. ‘In this instance, it is used to determine suitability for field work and where an Avenger would be best suited on the field.’

Steve didn’t complain after that.

Later on, Tony asked him. ‘So _has_ he turned on a TV since he got thawed out?’

Bucky shook his head. ‘He refuses to touch the thing. If it isn’t the radio or a paper, he won’t touch it.’

Tony rolled his eyes. ‘Just what we need. A technophobe.’

When the results of the tests came back, Bucky wasn’t surprised. “Untrained”: he had a week of boot camp and that was it. Of course he was untrained. “Displays clear signs of narcissism” and “self-centred”: yes, Steve had always made everything about him. Bucky wasn’t sure if that made him a narcissist but it was a good starting point. “Lacks any capacity for empathy”: that really didn’t surprise him. Steve could never see anything from the other guy’s perspective – like that guy at the movie theatre back in the 40s.

 _Mr. Rogers is suffering from the Dunning-Kruger Effect._ That was only a mild surprise to Bucky. Steve had always been confident, but he’d never realised it was quite to that extent. Back in the war, he’d honestly believed he was an excellent leader. Bucky had been the real commander (despite not being the ranking officer), and Steve had never seemed to notice. Then again, the Dunning-Kruger Effect would explain that.

The final recommendation was predictable: _It is recommended that Steven Grant Rogers remains off the field until such a time as these issues are resolved._

Steve, of course, was outraged. ‘I’m Captain America! I saved the world from the Red Skull!’

Tony, however, had never gone into a situation without getting all of his facts. ‘No. According to the report, the Red Skull vanished after fooling around with an artefact of unknown origin and is currently listed as “Missing: Assumed Dead”. You crashed a plane, set to destroy New York, into the Arctic. That would be a bigger deal now, than it was back then.’

Well, yes. Back then, New York had been a fledgling city. Now, it was arguably the most populous city in America.

Steve seethed in his seat. He went to retort but Tony cut him off.

‘You can either submit to the training and education program set out before you, or return to Brooklyn, drop the Captain America shtick, and get a job like everyone else. Be advised, if you do return to Brooklyn, it will be illegal for you to run around as Captain America.’

Steve stormed out.

Within 24 hours, he’d attacked another enhanced. Turned out it was just a scared kid who’d suddenly discovered his powers. The docs didn’t know if the boy was going to pull through. But now Tony had a promise to fulfil. Bucky and Carol were sent to Brooklyn with the warrant issued by the Supreme Court.

Bucky went in as the police blocked off the area from civilians. The stupid punk was just sitting in his apartment, reading a book. He looked up in alarm and surprise as Bucky stormed in. ‘You’ve really done it now.’ Bucky was only a little sorry as he hauled Steve up by the collar and out of the apartment.

Maybe shielding him from the consequences of his actions hadn’t been their brightest move.

‘Bucky, what’s going on?’ Steve demanded.

‘Tony warned you,’ Bucky snapped.

Carol joined him as he pulled Steve out of the building. They let the public see them march the loose cannon that was Steve to the car and haul him in. People snapped pictures and recorded videos. Those would be all over the internet in a few seconds. Once they arrived at the Tower, Carol and Bucky marched Steve in and down to the cell block, where a very annoyed Tony Stark was waiting.

They stopped outside the cells. Tony walked out. It made Bucky uncomfortable that the Arc Reactor could be seen glowing through his shirt. Tony gave Steve a hard look.

‘So what kind of explanation can you come up with,’ Tony pondered aloud, ‘for that jackass behaviour? You just got 22 counts of negligent manslaughter to your name.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Oh, and in case you don’t understand the legal term, you just killed 22 people.’

‘I didn’t—’ Steve began to insist.

The screen appeared next to Tony, showing the footage that they’d gotten from the city. It still made Bucky’s stomach turn. He was just grateful that, years ago, Howard had found out that the vibranium of the shield was actually stolen (thanks to his cousins) and had returned it to the isolated nation, Wakanda. There was no telling what kind of damage would have been done had Steve had it.

‘You threw a car, you threw a superhuman around and your missed punches hit buildings, which damaged them and the debris hit innocent civilians,’ Tony said. ‘Care to explain?’

Steve gave him a disapproving glare. ‘More people would have died if I hadn’t been there.’

Tony inclined his head, face completely expressionless. ‘So you don’t regret what you did at all. And what would you say to the families of those you have killed today?’

Steve leaned forward, causing Bucky and Carol to tighten their grips on him. Steve didn’t seem to notice. ‘I know what I’m doing! A real hero knows that he can’t save everyone! You may think you are a hero, but you’re not. You’re just a spoiled rich boy trying to bully me into submission. I don’t back down to bullies.’

Oh, you... ‘Stupid punk.’

‘Huh?’ Steve looked at him, completely befuddled.

‘Little home truth for you, Stevie,’ Bucky said. ‘You never understood the meaning of the word. You just used the “bully” excuse to justify getting into fights. Hell! You thought the Nazis were bullies!’

‘The Nazis?’ Tony demanded, drawing Steve’s attention back to him. ‘Oh, my God!’ He glared at Steve. He was outraged, and with good reason. ‘6 million people.’

‘What?’ Steve demanded.

‘A bully is someone who tries to feel better about themselves by tearing down either someone they envy or a person that is physically weaker than them,’ Tony said. ‘The Nazis systematically murdered 6 million people for their religion, their skin colour, or simply their sexual orientation. If they were found to be part of a minority of any sort, they went to the death camps.’ Tony’s eyes narrowed. ‘When you call the Nazis bullies, you disrespect every single one of those 6 million people. You disrespect every man, woman, and child who lost their life because the Nazis decided they had no right to live.’

Bucky remembered that Howard would repeat that number. He only referred to the Jewish victims. The main reason for that was that every single one of his known relatives on his father’s side had been killed in the Holocaust. It was something Howard had hated; something he’d felt he should have been able to stop, or at least mitigate.

Bucky knew that would’ve been nothing Howard could do, and he told him so. It didn’t take away the guilt though.

Steve glared right back. ‘Your father was a better man than you, Tony.’

That made him grin. ‘Guess dad was right about you,’ he said. ‘You do think you’re above reprimand.’

‘What?’ Steve flinched back, as much as he could given the circumstances. ‘Howard never said that!’

‘Not to you,’ Tony said. ‘When you knew him, dad didn’t know too much about you. After the war, however, he found out a bit more and he lost all admiration for you. See, that’s why dad let your name fade out. He didn’t think you were a very good role model for children. Hell, when he found out how your mom died, I heard he used some very colourful language.’

‘He did.’ Bucky remembered how outraged Peg had been at the language, but what could she say?

‘Hm.’ Tony drew Steve’s attention back as the billionaire paced in front of him. ‘Your mother was a nurse, wasn’t she, Rogers?’

‘Yes. What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘And she died of tuberculosis.’ Tony stopped and looked at him again. ‘These days, babies are inoculated against the disease within their first year of life. Back then, the vaccines didn’t exist. You lived with your mother while she was dying of the disease, and yet you didn’t contract it. You knew you were a carrier; you knew you were contaminated. Yet you still tried to join the army. When dad found out, he cursed you to hell and back.’

‘I don’t believe you!’ Steve snapped. ‘Your father was a patriot.’

Tony chuckled. ‘Funny.’

Oh, he was going to tell him!

‘What is?’ Steve demanded.

‘Do you know how Stark Industries started out?’

Steve stared at him, but said nothing.

‘Dad received a summons to the draft board in late 1941,’ Tony said. ‘He didn’t want to go to war though. So he took a box of bits and pieces and showed the men there that he was better suited to building weapons than to using them. The army paid him to create bombs and guns and missiles.’ Tony fixed Steve with a level look. ‘Dad built weapons to dodge the draft.’

Steve’s jaw fell open. ‘...That’s not true!’

‘No one’s above the law.’ Tony jerked his thumb.

Bucky and Carol hauled Steve into the cell. Carol then went over to speak to Tony while Bucky locked Steve in. It was hard to see him like this, but Steve had to learn. If he refused to learn the easy way, it would have to be the hard way. Steve rushed over to the bars. To Bucky’s surprise, he didn’t try to force his way out – not that he could; these cells were designed for all kinds of super powers.

‘Bucky, why are you doing this?’ Steve sounded desperate.

Bucky forced himself not to care. ‘You’ve always had problems, Steve. You always had to get into fights and you always ignored the consequences of your actions. It’s probably our fault. We enabled you far too much.’ He shook his head.

‘Bucky, no!’ Steve insisted. He lowered his voice so Tony and Carol wouldn’t hear, no doubt. ‘Listen, I know Tony must be blackmailing you with something...’ He trailed off as he saw the look on Bucky’s face.

‘Steven Grant Rogers, I have known Tony since the day he was born,’ he stated. ‘You may have been a lonely kid, but you brought a lot of that on yourself. Tony was even lonelier, and he didn’t go around picking fights. Sure, he had his mom and dad, the butler and his wife, and me around, but he had no friends his own age. Tony has dealt with classism his entire life. You seem to be under the impression that Howard indulged Tony, but he never did. Howard made sure Tony reaped the consequence of his bad decisions.’

Bucky turned and walked away.

‘Maybe doing the same to you will knock some sense into that thick skill of yours.’

Bucky could only hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll begin posting the next story, End of the Hunt, in 2 weeks.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Infectious](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13904649) by [bookfreak1317](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookfreak1317/pseuds/bookfreak1317)




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